Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic The Dog Stars is his third film in four years after Napoleon (disjointedly strange) and Gladiator II (not very goodus). On this occasion he’s made what I call a ‘hang on, what?’ film. Hang on, what? Who are these American Indians on horseback? Hang on, what? Why is Allison Janney suddenly cosplaying a 1950s air stewardess? The storytelling is so rushed it’s hard to follow. Scott is now 88, so perhaps he’s thinking there’s no time to muck around.
One interesting feature of post-apocalyptic movies is that guns survive but no one has a toaster
The film is based on a novel by Peter Heller and takes place sometime after a flu epidemic has all but wiped out mankind and civilisation has been reduced to a succession of film sets. (You know the scenario.) One such set is the abandoned Colorado airport hangar where survivors Hig (Jacob Elordi) and Bangley (Josh Brolin) have set up home. Bangley is the trigger-happy one, while Hig will kill when he must – he’s no wuss – but is the more sensitive. His best friend, as it happens, is his beloved dog Jasper, played by a Belgian Malinois who attended the première I went to, so I can say with first-hand knowledge that he’s a very good boy.
